The Coupling of Chemical and Transport Processes in Near-Field Modelling

Abstract

AbstractNear-field modelling is concerned with the description of the migration, chemical and degradation processes that may occur within an engineered radioactive waste repository and its immediate environs. The object is to gain understanding of such processes in order to predict the long-time evolution of the repository and to assess the degree of containment provided by the proposed engineered construction. The conditions of primary interest to our programme concern the waste contained within a steel canister and buried in a concrete environment within a clay geology. The chemistry of the near-field is controlled in that it is the consequence of the choice of near-field components, but it may be extremely complex. Intrusion of external groundwater and degradation of the chosen materials will lead to variations in the chemistry in both space and time. It is vitally important to understand these changing chemical conditions since they determine the solubility and sorption of any released radionuclides. In this paper, we describe the computer program CHEQMATE (CHemical EQuilibrium with Migration And Transport Equations), which has many applications in modelling various changes in chemistry in the near-field. The program combines an ionic migration code with the geochemical program PHREEQE [1]. The program maintains local chemical equilibrium in the system as the transport processes evolve. The program includes automatic mineral accounting; solid phases are added or removed from the equilibrium as precipitation or dissolution occurs. We illustrate the use of the CHEQMATE program with an example of a coupled chemical and transport problem, particularly relevant to the near-field of a waste repository.